Importance of Social Media in Evangelism

For years, I had no interest in using social media for any reason; I thought it was dumb, to be honest. My thoughts haven’t changed much since then, having used it for a couple of years now, but let me share with you the reason I started in the first place. As a Christian, it’s always been on my heart to do whatever I can to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and fulfill the Great Commission. The internet seemed like a good way to do that (or so I thought), so I did what everyone does now days: I started a Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube channel, and Blog. This was an arduous task for someone unfamiliar with these things; I wouldn’t recommend doing all of them at once, maybe just one or two at a time. Trying to figure out how to live and operate in each of these platforms was rather obnoxious. It’s hard to say whether it was worth it or not . . . I have mixed feelings about it most days.

In some ways it’s been rewarding and encouraging. In other ways, not so much. I knew the world was crazy, but that perception was based on a very limited experience of the world. When you open yourself up to the internet, crazy is radically exacerbated.

When you have a passion for apologetics (defending the faith) like I do, confrontation with skeptics is almost unavoidable; it comes with the territory. I get that. But there is also another confrontation that evinces itself: confrontation with professing Christians. I’ve always known that there were divisions within the church; that is a given. However, I had no idea that Christians within those divisions would also have their own kinds of divisions. No, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but I do expect other Christians to be wise enough to have healthy disagreements and not divide over them. I have always been an advocate of what C. S. Lewis called Mere Christianity. We don’t have to agree on everything, especially non-essentials. But to think that it is okay to disrespect and chastise other believers for disagreeing on those non-essentials is an embarrassment to Christianity. I do my best not to be one of those Christians.

At the time of my writing this, I have an interesting, perhaps unfruitful, conversation happening on Twitter with a professing Christian who thinks it’s okay to cuss, disrespect, and attack other Christians, such as Ravi Zacharias, Billy Graham, Joseph Prince, and myself. I’ve had other Christians put words in my mouth, accuse me of things I’ve never said, jump to false conclusions, and make me out to be someone I’m not. I’ve seen them say egregiously heinous things about Christians such as R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and other respectable believers. I’ve met Christians who think the earth is flat, claim we have no free will, and claim that God hates people. The list of crazy goes on and on and on; it doesn’t stop with the Westboro Baptist Church. The internet opens up a whole new realm of crazy, replete with the craziest of crazies. It’s really just . . . crazy.

The people who control the internet (Google) and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+) are no better. If you are a conservative, or a Bible believing Christian, you are off to a bad start when it comes to using the internet and social media. Google controls almost all the information out there: they have the biggest search engine, access to information, they own YouTube and Google+, and have a track record of censoring conservatives and people of faith. Facebook is guilty of removing ads promoting conservative movies, principles, and policies. Twitter is on record admitting that they censor conservatives. Even recently, Twitter used what was called the #TwitterLockOut to delete the followers of several conservative users, even I lost 27 followers with my modest Twitter following. Twitter claims those accounts were only “bots.” If that is the truth, then fine; however, it wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t. These are the people controlling our internet and our access to online information; these biased entities are not at all advocates of free speech or conservative values; they appear to be left-leaning bullies.

The silver lining is that they also appear to be losing. You would think that if you had Hollywood, education, the media, social media, the internet, and even athletes working hard to promote your false narratives, you might be more successful than you actually are . . . the American people seem to know better. These leftist clowns are so out of touch with the vast majority of Americans, they are going to mess around and inadvertently re-elect Donald Trump; their outrageous policies have zero resonance with the American people, and our elections are indicative of that. They are simply out of touch with reality, creating their own reality, and trying to force it down our throats. It’s just a matter of time before they implode, or explain themselves out of existence.

Should Christians and conservatives continue to use social media and the internet to promulgate the truth? Absolutely! Even if the odds are against us, we have to try. America is catching on, though, and for that I am hopeful. Besides, we have no idea the impact we might have on eternity, even if it appears to be miniscule during the here and now. It’s important to remember that some plant, others water, but only God gives the increase; we ought to continue to do what we can, and let the Lord continue to work through us for His purposes. Keep on keeping on, brothers and sisters; keep fighting the good fight. In the meantime, we should all long to hear those wonderful words from our Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”